Crying over spilt milk. Success and Failure often go together. Since the beginning of this personal challenge I have accomplished a variety of things and had a chance to take the mystery out of some of them. Day 284 was not a mystery removing day. It turns out that my goal of pouring a little heart on top of a cup of coffee would actually become a lesson in properly steamed milk. I had no idea. I happen to own a beautiful espresso machine. I have made foamy frothy milk for ma

Tied and tangled Today was all about satisfying curiosity and finally figuring out how to tie, weave and braid a very specific type of bracelet. I have wanted to learn this forever. When I started to weave Byzantine chain mail I was also intrigued by corded weaves that look like my braided metal. YouTube was my inspiration and after a few misguided instructors and a pile of tangles I found a great video that helped me create a cardboard jig. It works like a loom but is also p

Hoppy wort Day 282 was almost therapeutic as I spent most of the morning and afternoon making my very first home brewed beer. Science in combination with my 365 day adventures seems to be working out. My very wonderful friend who has home brewing experience led me down the path of wort making today. Why wort? This is the boiled combination of grains and hops that will eventually ferment into a delicious cream ale. I'd like to say that it was hours of very complex mixing and m

Watch it wiggle Today is an all day adventure in patience and I won't know success or failure for many long hours. Day 281 is all about making edible drinking cups. Why? Why not! I used Jello for this experience and the family approved. I chose the Captain America berry blue mostly because it's blue but also because they didn't have Wonder Woman. I'm not surprised. I mixed the liquid using half of the suggested water and added a teaspoon of unflavored gelatin. If you're plann

So it glows It's day 280 and I'm making messes again. This time I wanted to try something I saw on social media. I'm not jumping off a roof, although I did jump from a rock wall on day 277. On day 280 I made glow in the dark bubbles. They actually do glow in the jar. Before you get anxious with thoughts of how toxic this is, I took precautions. I also mixed this with bubble solution and I never want to get soap in my eyes. This is how I did it. I poured the contents of a 5 ou

I am grateful When I started this personal journey I never thought that I would lose my mom. I didn't think that the relationships with most of the people I love would change. I only looked forward to pushing myself to try new things and to take myself on an adventure that would launch me into the next part of my life. Grief is suffocating. Trying to put on a brave face is exhausting. The worst part is the loss of the voice of reason that my mother always was. As part of this

Braking My adventure on day 278 involved an impact wrench, rotors and new brakes. I have never worked on a car's brakes. I can change oil and tires but when it comes to taking them apart I have always been apprehensive. I don't own the tools required for this job so my father was in charge of the morning. My youngest kid was the muscle and we got to work. Everything was rusty but not so much that we couldn't get it apart. I had fun taking my son's car apart and making it work

Getting high It’s day 277 and I have finally accomplished a high ropes course. My experience started at Aerial Adventures in Lake Geneva. The place has a Climbing tower, free fall, bubble soccer, zip line and a high ropes course. I was only interested in the high ropes but the admission price included everything. Just to make sure I hit that ropes course with jelly legs I did a quick climb up the 35' tower. The team didn't give me a break. Instead of taking the stairs down th

It all happened by accident I had no idea when I popped the package this morning that doodle tops were going to be my experience. It was all pretty innocent and I was reserving them until one of those late nights when I had nothing done. What happened at 6:30 am turned in to an hour of bleeding these tiny spinning markers dry. Doodle Tops. Doodle Tops. Doodle Tops. I can not believe my mother never shared the joy of these toys. She loved tops. She had a box of them with a tra

Fluxed I started this particular experience in January and although it isn't framed my work is complete. On day 275 I learned to solder stained glass. If you've been following you will remember that I started on day 124 just learning to cut glass. In my head I was going to complete this experience in a single day. Little did I realized it would be hanging over my head for so long and that my end result would change purpose. On day 128 I learned how to clean the edge of the gl